Least Among the Saints: Typical and Good

 Least Among the Saints is a typical story. We’ve seen this many times before: pre-teen, Wade (Tristan Lake Leabu), comes from a broken family—drug addict mother and a father who walked out on them—but luckily he finds refuge in the home of his next-door neighbor, Anthony Hayward (Martin Papazian), a soldier just back from the war trying to cope with post traumatic stress and a broken marriage. Together they live a beautiful journey and find the strength to overcome life’s unexpected hardships. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “sounds like a pretty boring run-of-the-mill story”… And it is really. But even so, I must have cried at LEAST five times! So either I have emotional problems or they did something right…right? Actually, to be honest I think it’s more of the first.

The characters were good, but not greeeeat, not fantastic, you know? Not “I’m Forrest…Forrest Gump” fantastic. It’s the type of movie you’ll watch and enjoy but once it’s over, you’ll probably never think about it again. And that’s okay, we need movies like that too, not every film can be as brilliant as Forrest Gump.

The story line, although mainstream, is convincing. There were some plot points that landed too quickly because there was not enough background information for us to believe it. But, in the end, I think I was crying too much to care. I mean, jeez, it’s really hard NOT to like a kid from a dysfunctional family who suffers from bullying in school and wears his dad’s old headphones because he thinks he’s going to come back to retrieve them someday. It’s almost cheating when you put in a character like that. And, well, I have to confess that my other weakness in the movie was Milo the dog. I’m weak at the knees when it comes to furry friends! And come on! We’ve got a broken kid, a broken mom, a broken war vet, AND a dog!? What are these filmmakers trying to do to me here!?

This movie works for a few reasons. First of all, lovable characters: a cute kid who we love because he’s cute and because he goes through hell, add to that a next-door neighbor who is both good-looking and incredibly sweet and you’ve got yourself a casting formula that works. While this film’s got a convincing story line, it is almost a little too fast in hitting its plot points. But the charming characters manage to carry us through into their world with great acting and, actual honest-to-goodness plausible dialogue. These two things alone (great casting and dialog) are a balm unto the souls of jaded cinephiles, such as myself, the world over.

Obviously, one of the most important aspects to be considered when writing your future Oscar-winning screenplay is character development. In a drama like this one, the audience doesn’t want to sit through a two-hour journey with unlikable cardboard characters, so do your homework and make sure that you’ve made your characters into real, living-and-breathing people before you finish your last draft.

Last, but certainly first to consider when it comes to writing a screenplay: dialogue. Do NOT screw up your dialogue when writing a drama! DO NOT! The difference between cheesy and brilliant dialogue is sometimes minimal so, surely, it is a tough business. Least Among the Saints presents decent dialogue that I was able to take in without vomiting all over my lovely date’s “what am I doing next to this insane woman who bawls every time one of the movie’s plot points reaches it’s climax?” face. Thank the heavens for that, nothing’s worse than forced dialogue.

To sum it all up, this film is a decent film to enjoy during a matinee with someone who doesn’t mind crying it up alongside you.